The Child | |
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Directed by | James Limbo Sanggalang |
Produced by | Charo Santos Concio Malou N. De Guzman Jessie Lasaten |
Screenplay by | Ricardo Lee Raymond Lee |
Starring |
Vilma Santos Claudine Barretto |
Music by | Jessie Lasaten |
Edited by | George Jarlego |
Distributed by | Star Cinema |
Release date
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Running time
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117 minutes |
Country | Philippines |
Language | English/Tagalog |
Box office | ₱165.93 million |
The Child (Anak) is a 2000 Filipino family drama film directed by Rory Quintos starring Vilma Santos and Claudine Barretto with Baron Geisler.The film was critically acclaimed by film critics. It was the Philippines' submission to the 73rd Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee.The film is often regarded as the best Filipino film of all time.
The film has been restored by ABS-CBN Film Archives. The restored version premiered on ABS-CBN's movie channel, Cinema One, on May 22, 2013.
A woman struggling to make a better life for her family finds that her efforts have caused a rift between her and her children in this downbeat family drama. Josie is a mother of three children (Carla, Michael, and Daday) from the Philippines who takes a job in Hong Kong as a nanny for a wealthy couple for several years. She knows she can make far more money in Hong Kong than she could at home, but also has qualms about how her absence will affect her children, especially when her husband died not long after she left. When Josie returns home, she has gifts for everyone and savings from her salary, which she plans to use to start a business. Her children, however, don't welcome their mother with open arms. The younger kids, Daday and Michael, are guarded around Josie, and while they eventually mend their relationship with their mother, the oldest, Carla, does nothing to disguise her resentment for what she sees as callous abandonment of her family. Carla openly challenges Josie's authority, starts dating boys she knows her mother wouldn't approve of, flaunts her burgeoning sexuality, begins using drugs and has multiple abortions.